Be Careful What You Ask For
1 Samuel 9:1–25
Opening
Prayer
“Our Father, again we
express our gratitude, our thanks to You, because You
are the God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Once again, as we
completed this last year, you provided the resources we needed to pay all our
bills and take care of all of our financial needs. For that we are extremely
grateful.
Father, we pray that as we
look at this next year that we may look at it as an opportunity to accelerate
our own spiritual growth—that we might look at how we live and how we are
devoting our time. That as Paul says in Ephesians 5:17, we are to redeem the
time. That means we need to make sure we are putting our time and effort in
that which counts for eternity, even though we have to work, and we have to
take care of a number of temporal responsibilities. We have to make sure that
those do not get in the way of our preparation for eternity.
Father, we pray that as we
continue to study Your Word that the Holy Spirit would strengthen us, encourage
us, that we might be edified in our souls that You
might be glorified. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Open your Bibles with me to
1 Samuel 9. This is one of the chapters that does not
contain a prayer. It does not contain a specific teaching. It is almost all historical narrative, which is covered much more quickly
when you are teaching through the Word. A narrative is describing what is
taking place. One of the things that we look at is what is going on in this
section.
I had an interesting
question today. It came in on the Internet. Someone asked if there were any
passages or verses in the Bible that we might speculate about or not know a
whole lot about? A lot of people may speculate and say a lot of things about
it, but a lot is not there. That is true, but:
If you think about a jigsaw
puzzle, it may be that one piece in the puzzle is not showing the main thing
that is depicted in the picture, but it pulls everything together. That can be
true for a lot of different verses.
But one of the things that
we learn in Scripture is that all Scripture is God-breathed, 2 Timothy 3:16–17.
Not some Scripture, not most Scripture, not the Scripture
that seems relevant or significant to us, but all Scripture is breathed out by God.
Even those verses that list genealogical information, just lists names, once
you start studying a lot of those verses, it means something even if you do not
know who those individuals are.
We have a verse like that in
the very beginning of 1 Samuel 9. Even if we do not have a lot of information
about those people, there are certain things that we can learn from that verse.
God has put that information there and has seen to it that it is not only
recorded for the Old Testament for Israel, but it is recorded for our benefit.
It is recorded in the Scripture for all the ages, for eternity.
God has not just put
something there because He needed to fill a gap or something like that. It has
a reason even if we may not discern what that reason is right away. It may take
years to do that.
In a passage like 1 Samuel
9, it is a passage that moves us, transitions us, from Israel without a king to
Israel having a king. Saul is going to be anointed the king of Israel, of all
twelve tribes. That begins at the beginning of 1 Samuel 10. 1 Samuel 9 has 27
verses that build up to the point where Samuel will take out his flask of oil
to anoint Saul.
As we finished with 1 Samuel
8, we saw that the people were in rebellion against God, not against Samuel or
against Samuel’s leadership. But they use that as a justification. They were
really truly in rebellion against God. They told Samuel they wanted to have a
king. The key phrase is “like all the other nations.”
They wanted to have a king
like all the other nations and be like everybody else. I do not know about you,
when you were a kid, but my mother had these little sayings, something like:
“If everybody else had a wart on their nose, would you want one, too?” They
were always very tacky illustrations. The point was: Why would you want to be
like everybody else?
That was the exact problem
that we have with Israel. They wanted to be like everybody else. They thought
the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. And it is sometimes, but
it still needs to be cut, mowed, and weeded. No matter what it is, it either
has to be painted, repainted, cleaned, cut, whatever it is. It is never perfect
on the other side of the fence. They wanted to have a king, and this was not
going to be a king like God wanted. God is going to answer their prayers.
This is why I titled this Be Careful What
You Ask For. There is an old African proverb that goes something like this:
when the gods want to make you miserable, they answer your prayers.
God is going to take Israel
through an extremely harsh lesson through Samuel. Sometimes God gives us the
leaders that we want in order to show us what disastrous people they are. That
has happened many times throughout history. At the end of 1 Samuel 8 the Lord
tells Samuel to go ahead and give the people what they want, a “king like all the
other nations.”
We expect Samuel to go and
select a king right away. But what we discover is that Samuel does not do that.
When 1 Samuel 8 opens up, what we find in the course of the description is that
Samuel had gone back home to Ramah. He is going about his priestly duties. He
is fulfilling his responsibilities as a judge, a leader of Israel. And he is
still waiting on the Lord for God to give him direction as to who this person will be that will be anointed.
There is an important lesson
there in terms of God’s timing—until God reveals to us, or makes clear to us,
usually through circumstances.
Remember, God does not speak
to us today like He did in the Old Testament. He speaks to us through His Word.
But He does not speak to us apart from His Word. God is silent during these
years just as God was silent for the last 400 years of the period in the Old
Testament before Jesus came.
God has been silent since
the close of the Canon. The Canon is enough. We are to learn to trust the
Scripture. We are to learn to trust what God has said. God is teaching us that
we are not to be looking for something else or something new. We have to wait
on the Lord in His timing.
This is what we find in
passages like Proverbs 3:5–6, “Trust
in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all
your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
God’s timing is going to be
perfect. It is not going to be your timing or my timing. What we see here is a
lesson in how Samuel goes about his day-to-day work, just as we should, waiting
on the Lord to bring about the circumstances and the timing for the next step,
not trying to necessarily push things.
As we look at the structure
of Samuel, we have studied through 1 Samuel 1–7, where the focus was on Samuel,
who is the prophet, priest, and judge. Then from 1 Samuel 8 through the end of
1 Samuel we have the life of Saul, so there are basically two stages:
This occurs at the same time
as the rise of David, who will not become king until the beginning of 2 Samuel.
Now this map, and we will
look at it again in a minute, but it is a little better map than I used last
time. This map focuses on the center of Israel. Remember, this orients you
geographically.
Over on the west you have
the Mediterranean Sea. Down to the southeast of Jerusalem is the Dead Sea.
Jerusalem is located on the map at Jebus, the old
Canaanite name, because at the time of Saul, Jerusalem has not yet been
conquered, and the Jebusites still lived there.
This is really a map showing
the wars and the battles of Saul, so ignore the lines and the movement. What
you see on the map is that a lot of activity takes place up and down this green
and yellow line, which basically takes place in the hill country of Samaria.
The towns we should be aware of:
We are not very far from the
center of Jebus (Jerusalem). One of the things that
you should observe here is Gibeah is Saul’s hometown.
How far is Saul’s home town from Ramah, which is
Samuel’s hometown? Not very far. Just keep that in
mind.
You have key locations:
What are we focusing on? We
are focusing on how the Lord is working in Israel to teach them a lesson. He is
going to select and anoint Saul to be the king of Israel. This is the first
person God has had anointed as the king over Israel. He is not the first person
the Israelites have crowned king. The first person the Israelites crowned king
was the son of Gideon. His name was Abimelech.
That is always one of my fun
parts. I love reading the Hebrew in the Old Testament books because they are so
filled with little puns and nuances. Gideon comes along after he had defeated
the Midianites, and the people want to make him king.
He acts humble. He says no, I am not going to be king, but then the next verse
says that he had an ephod made, which is a priestly garment, and the people
worshiped it. He does really well one minute, and then he just blows it the
next minute and introduces idolatry into the people.
I am not going to ask for a
show of hands, but how many of y’all have done really well spiritually one
minute and blown it completely the next minute? That is pretty common. That is
what Gideon did.
Then he has a son. Remember,
the people wanted him to be king and he said no, no, no, I am not going to be
king. What did he name his son? He named his son Abimelech. Abimelech means “My father is king.” Just a little
hint there.
Abimelech lines up with a
bunch of ne’er-do-wells in Shechem, and they crown him to be king. He is the
first king crowned over Israel. I like to use that as a trivia point. He is the
first person crowned king of Israel, but he is not the first person that the
Lord anointed or had crowned king. We are going to see in this section, 1
Samuel 9–16, how the Lord selects and anoints Saul to be king over Israel. The
first section is this chapter, 1 Samuel 9 where we see:
1. The Lord God directing
Samuel to select Saul to be king over Israel, 1 Samuel 9:1–10:16.
One of the things that we
see here is a comparison and contrast between Samuel and Saul. The writer is
doing that specifically. I want you to turn back to 1 Samuel 1. It begins like
this.
“Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim …” We are going
to see a similar word here in a minute, Zuph. It is
the same basic root. You can hear the similarity. “… of the mountains
of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the
son of Tohu, the son of Zuph
…” See,
Zophim is a territorial name that derived from an
ancestor whose name was Zuph, an Ephraimite.
Look how 1 Samuel 9 begins.
It should be translated the same because it is the same thing in the Hebrew, “There was a man
of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel,
the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath,
the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite,
a mighty man of power.” Both names, Samuel and Saul, begin virtually the same way.
The author wants us to see
and make a comparison and contrast between Samuel and Saul:
Seven miles down the road is
Samuel’s home town. How many people in Israel know who
Samuel is? Everybody. How many people know who Saul is? Nobody.
Both Samuel and Saul had names etymologically linked to the
same verb, which means “requested.” Samuel was “requested” of the Lord. Shmuel
is related to the verb shaal, notice the “sh”
and the “l”.
Shaal means “to ask” or “to make a request.” Shaul
is the one the people requested. They both have names that ultimately connect
to the same verbal root.
So there are similarities
there.
There are also some
important differences. In contrasting them we see that:
I know you do not know
anybody like that, but I know some people like that. Maybe one or two in the
congregation, but I will not say anything.
What is interesting is we
live in a culture where tall is considered “good”. You look at somebody tall.
We like tall leaders in America. But in Israel, the only people the Scriptures
make an issue out of in terms of their height are people like Goliath, Og, the king of Bashan, and Saul. None of these do well.
The only people the Bible focuses on in terms of their physical height and
appearance are not necessarily people who have succeeded or done well.
What we see at the very
beginning, let’s look at the first couple of verses:
1 Samuel 9:1–2, “There was a man
of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel,
the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath,
the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite,
a mighty man of power. And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was
Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children
of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the
people.”
I want to know if anybody
here reading that second verse keyed in on a particular word there? Did anyone
catch a particular word? “Choice.” That is right.
That is the doctrine of the
Magnum Bar. That is the same word. One translation actually translated it “He
was elect.” He is not “elect” yet. It is choice. It is that idea of excellence,
someone who looks good.
In fact, when you look at
various translations, that is how they translate it
for the most part. Saul is described as someone who is materially well to do.
He is physically impressive. He is able to inspire a following among the
Israelites in these first three or four chapters. He is skilled at battle. He
is able to bring about a victory.
But Saul comes from a tribe
(the Benjamites) that is spiritually depraved. In
fact, Gibeah, Saul’s hometown, is the scene of an
event back in Judges 19 where this Levitical priest comes with his concubine,
just like what happens back in Genesis 19. It is like Sodom and Gomorrah.
If you go back and listen to
the study I did of that, the vocabulary, the similar vocabulary between Judges
19 and Genesis 19 in the history of Sodom and Gomorrah is impressive. There are
a huge number of similar words. The writer of Scripture is saying—see what is
happening! In the heart of Israel, in an Israelite town.
It is the same thing that those sodomites in Sodom and Gomorrah did. They are
not just as depraved as the Canaanites were.
And this is Saul’s hometown.
Saul is from Gibeah. This is not a good thing. This
is not a great thing. That would not sound good to a lot of people. He comes
from a tribe that has demonstrated spiritual disobedience and rebellion. In
fact, the Benjamites brought about a civil war that
almost destroyed the tribe of Benjamin.
Saul is depicted in 1 Samuel
9:1–2 as being “pasturally” incompetent. He cannot
find the donkeys. Leaders historically are viewed as being shepherds. Saul is
incompetent “pasturally”. He is spiritually ignorant.
He is a little bit irrational at times.
In Judges 19–21 we see the last
mention of the Benjamites, when they are almost
eradicated. What happens here, in the right way the Scripture is written, is
that by bringing these points out, it raises questions about: Is Saul really
going to be a good leader?
Later on, the people would
know the story, and they would immediately pick up on the fact that this
genealogy here is designed to raise questions. Just like if you go to the
opera, as soon as the bad guy comes out on the scene, or just before he comes
out on the scene, you hear the base notes. That foreshadows what is about to
happen.
That is what this is. This
is the base note. You go, oh, the bad guy, the villain
of this part of the story is about to come on the scene.
We also know that back in
Genesis 49:10 that God had prophesied that the scepter would not depart from
the tribe of Judah—not Benjamin, Judah. God’s intent is to raise-up a king and
a dynasty that would be from the tribe of Judah. All of this is brought out and
emphasized in this section.
We see the introduction of
Saul’s family here. His father’s name is Kish. His grandfather’s name is Abiel. His great-grandfather’s name is Zeror.
In the slide I have put them in line here:
Aphiah
Bechorath
Zeror
Abiel
Kish
Saul
Aphiah is the head of the clan. He is the one
they are tracing back too. He is described, as we see in 1 Samuel 1, “Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.” The phrase in the
Hebrew is gibbor chayil. In the early part of the Scripture a gibbor
is usually translated “a mighty warrior.” Some of the ways this phrase has been
translated:
This is the idea. It is
originally a military term that describes someone who has conquered the
territory, demonstrated his bravery and his courage on the field of battle. But
as time goes on what happened to a lot of military men? The same thing that
happened then has happened in our culture. They become successful in other
areas.
The idiom “man of valor”
expands from just somebody who has demonstrated success and ability and
strength on the battlefield, to someone who has become successful in life,
someone who has become wealthy, and someone who has become strong.
The idea is that Saul
descends from a line of men who have great social standing and great wealth.
The family, we learn, has a number of servants. They have donkeys. They have
oxen. It indicates that he is from a family that has position, that has power,
but he is not one of those who is in the front of the
picture.
In 1 Samuel 9:2 we are told
that Kish had a “choice
and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person…”
The word “handsome” repeated there is the same word tob. Tob is the
word that means basically “good”, but it has a range of meanings. It can also
describe someone’s appearance. There are different translations of this:
The idea of “choice” here is
excellent or select, not the idea of someone who is chosen. Ever since Calvin,
that is the knee jerk response—to always translate these terms as “elect.” This
has nothing to do with salvation, or even God’s destiny at this point. It is
just saying this is a good-looking man who is head and shoulders upward. He is
taller than anybody else.
Every time I read this I
always think of Sam Houston because Sam Houston was that way. He was about
6’4”. He stood head and shoulders above his comrades. People of that
generation, like George Washington, who was also 6’2,” stood head and shoulders
above most people. People like Samuel Adams were about 5’6”. The shortest in
the 19th century was James Madison, who was 5’4”.
Last week I made the
comment, in talking about this, that they are looking on the outside. They are
looking at the fact that this is a tall, good-looking man; therefore we can
follow him. If he looks good on the outside, he must be good on the inside. We
want to judge a book by its cover.
I made the comment last time
as a warning to a lot of you that we have to be careful when we look at
politics today. I made comments about the fact that one of the candidates is
pretty short, not because I am against the candidate. But somebody came back to
me and said that some people think you do not like him. No. He is the only one
I do like.
But some people point out
that in American history, since the beginning of the 20th century,
especially with the rise of film, television, and pictures, that Americans pick
presidents like they pick their cereal. If it has a good cover and it is
attractive and it sounds good superficially, we are sold, and that is whom we go
with. That is the wrong thing. We do not look very much deeper into the issue.
In the United States, in
western culture, tall is supposed to be a sign of strong character and good
leadership. As I pointed out last time (and I am expanding on this), in
electoral politics generally speaking, the shorter of the two candidates has
always lost. As we look back over the 20th century, the shortest two
presidents were Jimmy Carter, who is 5’9” and a half, and Harry Truman who was
5’9”. Remember, Harry Truman ascended to the presidency because Franklin
Roosevelt died. Franklin Roosevelt was 6’2”.
Truman got elected to the
vice-presidency on Roosevelt’s coattail. When Roosevelt died, Truman became
president. He only got reelected the one time. Jimmy Carter probably never
would have gotten reelected despite his high IQ. He is a fool, just like Romans
1:22 says—that many profess to be wise and became fools.
Carter was a horrible
president, and he only got in because the country was reacting against
Republicans because of Watergate. But we have had a history, even in the 19th
century, of a lot of tall presidents, and only two shorter ones.
In this election we have an
interesting thing. Trump says he is 6’2” and weighs 198 pounds. That is on his
website. I have looked at Trump. If he is 6’2” he weighs 240 pounds. Some
people say he is only 6’. But he is tall. Rubio is 5’10” and Ted Cruz is 5’8”.
Probably they are going up against Hillary Clinton, who is 5’7”, but she is a
woman. It changes the whole dynamic because it is not going to be two men, one
taller and one shorter. It is up to the Lord.
The most constitutional
candidate that we have is Ted Cruz. I mean nobody understands the Constitution
better than Ted Cruz. This is a guy who when he was about 13 years old
memorized the Constitution and went around the state with a debate team writing
the Constitution out on a board word for word, week after week after week
throughout the year. This guy knows the Constitution better than anybody else.
But Americans do not want a
president who knows the Constitution. If we did, we would not have elected
Barak Obama. We probably would not have elected George Bush or George Herbert
Walker Bush. We probably would not have elected half the presidents we have
elected since the end of WWI. We would not have elected Woodrow Wilson. Every
president we have had had moved us further and further away from the founders
who understood the principles of liberty and freedom.
If we want liberty and
freedom, we have to operate on the rules of the game. Can you imagine what it
would have been like last Thursday night at the Cotton Bowl if the referees
treated the rules of the NCAA the same way that the Supreme Court of
this country treats the Constitution? Alabama would not have won. They would
not have even scored. Michigan State would have won.
That is what we have done in
this country. We no longer care about who is right. We care about who looks
good. We care about who has got the best PR team. That is a shame, because the
most qualified guy that we have had running for president in probably the last
35–40 years is Ted Cruz.
This is what happens. It is
that we look on the outside. And that is what Israel did. God is slam-dunking
them for looking on the superficial. That is what He did in 1 Samuel 8. He
said, “These people are not rejecting you Samuel. They are rejecting Me and My leadership. Let’s give them what they want. It
will be a disaster!”
That is often what God does
with us. He gives us what we want, and it becomes a disaster.
The problem that we have
coming up in this next election is that people are not going to vote for the
person who is the most intelligent. They are not going to vote for the person
who understands the law of the land the best. They are going to vote for
whatever self-centered rationale that they have.
Remember, the majority of
post-modern pagans, who do not know a clue about the Bible, American history,
or the Constitution, are always going to vote for the wrong person most of the
time. That is the history of about the last 75–100 years of American history.
What I am warning you about
is—do not get your hopes up. Fight hard, work hard, volunteer
for the person you think is the best one. But I know most of you, and I am just
warning you, do not put your hope in the American electorate. Put your hope in
God. Do not put your hope in men of flesh.
What happens in 1 Samuel 9:3
is that Saul has got a little problem. Some of his
father’s “she-asses” are lost, that is the Hebrew word. “The donkeys of Kish…” It is a feminine
noun. The donkeys of Kish were lost. That is not all of them. It indicates some
of them.
Kish sent his son on a
search and rescue mission to find the donkeys. He says to “take one of the servants with you, and
arise, go and look for the donkeys.” So we see there that he has several
servants.
The servant that Saul takes
with him is a pretty well informed servant. It is very likely that this is the
chief of the servants. This is probably the administrator, the steward over all
that the family of Kish owns. But we learn a couple of things that are
important here.
In the ancient world leaders
are often compared to shepherds.
Often you have some cultures
that refer to their kings as shepherd-kings. In fact, the Bible uses a shepherd
analogy many times to relate to leadership, for example: Isaiah 56:11, Jeremiah
10:21, Jeremiah 23:1–4.
If you think through the
Bible, some of the most significant leaders in Israel’s history were shepherds.
They were nomads. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses are depicted
as skillful shepherds, especially Jacob and Moses.
But Saul is pictured here in
a very, very negative light. The donkeys have strayed off. The she-asses have
strayed off, and he cannot find his asses with both
hands and the help of a servant. The donkeys are wandering loose. Saul is
pictured here as inept. He cannot take care of these large animals. We are told
that he goes through the mountains of Ephraim and through the land of Shalisha.
These are probably like Zuph, who we talked about in reference to Elkanah in 1 Samuel 1, and with reference to Aphiah, the Benjamite. These were
probably one of the ancestors who originally staked out this territory
following the conquest. We do not know exactly where these territories were
located, but they went through the area of Shalisha
and the area of Shaalim.
These would be areas that
are to the north of Gibeah and Ramah. Saul is out
here traveling and walking around for several days. We read that “he passed through
the land of the Benjamites, but they did not find
them. When they had come to the land of Zuph…” We read
about Zuph. That is going to be near Ramah on the map
because Zuph, the Zophites
were ancestors of Samuel. That tells us we are close to the area of Ramah. It
had been about three days, and Saul had not been able to find the donkeys. He
says, “Come,
let us return, lest my father cease caring about the donkeys and
become worried about us.”
Saul searched this large
area for three days with his servant. If it is a slave, it is not a slave like
we think of slaves. It would be a slave like an indentured servant, but he is more
likely a servant who is taking care of all the family. He is traveling
throughout with Saul. This servant is not named, but he is fairly sharp. He is
probably the head servant. The way this is written in the Hebrew, it should
certainly be understood that way. He is not just one from the servants, but he
could be.
The text uses the word echad,
the word that means first. It could mean the first of the servants. This would
indicate that he is the main one. Later on we learn that the house of Saul had
a servant named Ziba, who had fifteen sons. He is
described in 2 Samuel 19ff. He was extremely wealthy. This could be that same
individual.
Here is the Hebrew word aton, for
the she-ass and the she-donkey. I am not making this up. That is how it is
translated. I put documentation there, the “Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament” (TWOT) and the “New International Dictionary of Old
Testament Theology & Exegesis” (NIDOTTE).
Then in 1 Samuel 9:6, as
they come along, they seek guidance. Notice the spiritual insight of the
servant. Saul is not insightful. Saul grew-up in Gibeah,
7 miles from Ramah.
Who is the most significant
person in Israel? Samuel. Yet Saul grows up 7 miles away, and he does not have
a clue who Samuel is or that he is from Ramah, 7 miles
down the road. He is really spiritually dense.
We read this after Saul said “let’s go home.” The servant says, “Look now, there is in this city …” That is Ramah. “… a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that
he says surely comes to pass.” Let’s go there. “… perhaps he can show us
the way that we should go.”
Then Saul says something to
him, they have this conversation. It shows that Saul is not too bright about
spiritual things. He thinks that he has to pay off the man of God to get any
help. Then they _have this conversation. A couple of
things we ought to note here:
We see that in 1 Samuel 9:7, “But
look, if we go, what shall we bring the man?” There is a sense of positive there. At
least he is thinking in terms of—we should not just expect it to be free—but he
does not understand how things work, that he can just go to the prophet and ask
him for guidance.
In 1 Samuel 9:8, the servant
volunteers. We see the generosity of the servant. He has a fourth of a shekel
of silver, which is not a whole lot. He has ten or twenty bucks, as a little
tip, for the prophet, but that is about it.
Then in 1 Samuel 9:9 we come to an
interesting parenthetical verse: “Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of
God, he spoke thus: ‘Come, let us go to the seer.’ ”
This indicates that by the
time the book of Samuel is written, the idiom had changed. They no longer
referred to the prophet as a “seer” but as a “prophet”. This is just a little
note indicating and again confirming the accuracy of the historical value of
Samuel.
Then we come to the next set
of verses in 1 Samuel 9:11–14, where we see that God leads Saul to the seer. We
see the invisible hand of God behind the scene. Remember Proverbs 3:5–6? We
trust in the Lord, and He will direct our paths. Samuel is trusting
the Lord; Saul is not. But God is still directing the paths. He is going to
bring Saul to Samuel.
We are told in 1 Samuel
9:11— (and I want you to notice something here. Notice the verbs and notice the
action. Up to this point things have gone along in a general pace, about 30
miles per hour, but notice what happens here):
Saul and his servant are
walking up the hill to the city, and there are some young girls coming in a
group. This tells us that it is evening. This is when they normally go and draw
water for the evening meal. We are going to find out in a few minutes that
there is going to be an evening sacrifice.
This was one of the few
times in their culture when a strange man could talk, have a conversation with
the girls. And Saul and his servant ask, “Is the seer here? And they answered them and
said, ‘Yes, there he is, just ahead of you. Hurry now; for today he came to
this city, because there is a sacrifice of the people today on the high place.’
”
“Today he came.”
If you had gotten here
yesterday he would not be here. If you got here tomorrow he would be gone.
Today! He was here. Do you think that is a coincidence? That is the timing of
God—“today on
the high place.”
1 Samuel 9:13, “As soon as you
come into the city…” Notice how the pace has picked up. “As soon as you come into the city, you will
surely find him before he goes to the high place…” You do not want to waste time, because
if he gets up there, he is going to be busy with the sacrifice. They are saying
“you need to find him before he goes to the high place.”
“For the people will not eat until he comes,
because he must bless the sacrifice; afterward those who are invited will eat.
Now therefore, go up, for about this time you will find him.” Hurry!
There is this sense—There he
is!—Notice the words that are used there. There he is,
just now! Hurry! He just came for today! Find him before he goes to the high
place! Go! The pace picks up a lot.
Saul and his servant go
looking for Samuel. As they are walking up, they point out that Samuel is just
in front of them. Do you think that was a coincidence?
See, when God is in things,
the circumstances are going to work out. He will arrange the circumstances
providentially. You do not have to look for them.
Samuel is not naval gazing
looking for the will of God. You have heard me teach on the will of God before.
If you want to know God’s will, you read the Scripture and do what God says to
do. You go about your daily business, as Saul went about his, and God is going
to direct your paths.
He is not playing some sort
of shell game where you have to guess which half of the walnut shell the pea is
under. That pea would represent the will of God. What you have to do is do what
God says to do, and He will direct your paths.
Saul and his servant come to
Samuel. Samuel is headed up toward the high place. What is interesting is the
Hebrew word for “high place” is bamah. Bamah
is the Hebrew cognate for the Greek word BEMA.
Even today, you go into a
synagogue, what is the dais called? What is the
platform called? It is called the BEMA. It is a raised
platform.
In the ancient world, you
would go to the coliseum to view the athletic contests. The judges were all
sitting in a distinct set of benches that were called the BEMA. This word originally goes back to the Hebrew. It is
a high place. That is all that it means. It is an elevated place.
This was a sacred site and
an altar that Samuel had built there, because the Philistines destroyed Shiloh
where the tabernacle had been about 20–30 years before.
He had built the altar here,
and he would regularly serve as the priest there and offer sacrifices.
Remember, he served as a Levitical priest. He would pronounce a blessing if he
was in town. He would pronounce a blessing over the evening sacrifices.
The other thing that we see
here is that eating is associated with worship. Eating is often part of
fellowship with God. In the Church Age, we have the Lord’s Table and fellowship
with man. Worshippers eat.
In the Old Testament they
would participate in the eating of both peace offerings and fellowship
offerings—the same kind of thing that we saw in 1 Samuel 1:4 when Elkanah’s family would take offerings to Shiloh, and then
they would eat there. They would partake of those peace and fellowship
offerings.
Then we come to the next
section in 1 Samuel 9:15–27, which describes how Saul meets Samuel, and how God
reveals His selection to Saul, which is in 1 Samuel 9:15–17.
This is what we see in 1 Samuel
9:15, “Now the Lord had
told Samuel in his ear the day before Saul came, saying…”
Some people who do not
understand Scripture and do not teach Scripture verse-by-verse will go in and
will jerk this verse out of context and say, if you want to know God’s will you
have to listen to Him. He will speak in your ear. That is garbage!
God did not speak in the ear
of anybody in Israel at this time except Samuel. It is a unique and distinct
function for the leader of Israel, who is a prophet and a priest and a judge.
He does not do that for everybody else.
This idea that God speaks to
us today, other than through His Word is mysticism.
Mysticism is the modus operandi
of the pagan. That is what the pagans did in the ancient world. That is not
what believers did. Believers look to the Torah, the instruction of God. That is how God
spoke—either through the Torah or through the prophets.
Once the Canon was completed
and God has given us all that information, nothing new is added. So this is a
unique situation. God spoke to Samuel. It is audible information.
The day before, God was speaking
to Samuel and says in 1 Samuel 9:16, “ ‘Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from
the land of Benjamin …”
Notice how precise it is.
God does not speak in generalities. Yet a lot of these people you hear today
when you watch these televangelists, when you listen to these preachers, and
you listen to what they say God says to them, it is pretty general. It is never
as precise as what you have in Scripture.
“… about this time I will send you a man from the
land of Benjamin and you shall anoint him commander over My people Israel …”
The word for “anoint” is the
Hebrew word mashah. The verb mashah,
which in the noun form is mashiach, meaning “the anointed one, the Messiah.”
That is where we get that
term. The kings and the priests were anointed ones. That means they were
appointed to a specific role and a specific task. Saul is appointed to be “the commander
over My people.”
I want you to notice here
that you have five uses of the phrase “my people.” This emphasizes that even though there is
going to be a human leadership shift from Samuel to a king, the people are
God’s people. The leader of Israel is an under-shepherd. The people do not
become the king’s people.
It says, “… you shall anoint
him commander over My people Israel that he may save
My people Israel …”
Here is a use of the word
“save” that does not talk about getting into Heaven. It is temporal deliverance
from the Philistines. “… he
will deliver My people from the hand of the Philistines ...”
One of the roles of the royal mashiach,
the royal Messiah, is to deliver people from their enemies. This is what is
going to happen in a couple of chapters.
In 1 Samuel 11, one of the
first things that Saul does is rescue the Israelites at Jabesh-Gilead
from the siege by Nahash the Ammonite. That is the
job of the executive branch. The job of the president, the job of a king, is to
do two things. Anything else is ungodly and unrighteous. He is to:
That is it folks. In fact, if you
read the original Constitution and understand the emphasis of our founding
fathers, they saw the primary power of this country—who
it is that had real power in any business.
Who really controls the business?
It is whoever controls the money. What do we say whenever we think that there
is corruption going on? Follow the money!
We think that criminal activity
took place? What do we do? Look for the money trail! Because
money talks.
So when we look at how our
government was structured in the Constitution, who controls the money?
According to the Constitution, it is Congress. The President should not be
allowed to spend one dime unless the people say it is okay.
The Congress is the people’s
house. It is the House of Representatives that originates
spending bills. We have got to clean house. We have got to get rid of every
single congressman who has allowed a president to initiate spending, and to
spend without congressional permission. That is illegal!
A country cannot survive if the
leaders are operating outside of the law. We have created not only a ruling
class, but because of the way they just wink at the Constitution, they are just
as bad as what you had all through the Old Testament, with all these kings who
just flaunted _the Torah.
They ignored what God said, just
like they ignore what the Constitution says. It is the same problem. It is the
problem of arrogance. The only solution is going to be interference from God.
That is never fun for a nation—when God starts interfering.
The mashiach
is to save his people. That is part of the job of the President. It is to give
national security from external and internal enemies.
“… that he may save My people from the hand of the
Philistines; for I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.’
”
God is responding. He is going to
deliver Israel from the Philistines, and both Samuel and Saul fought the
Philistines.
Then in 1 Samuel 9:17 we read, “So when Samuel
saw Saul, the Lord said to him …”
Here is the Lord talking in
his ear, whispering in Samuel’s ear again. It is audible. If you had a little
MP3 recorder you could have held it up right next to Samuel’s ear, and you
could have recorded the whisper of God. It was objective. It is not inside his
head. It is outside. He is speaking into his ear.
“There is he is, the man of whom I spoke to
you. This one shall reign over My people.”
This is not the word we
would expect for “reign”. This is the word atsar,
which means he will “restrain” My people. That is what 1 Samuel 8 said. He is
going to raise the taxes. He is going to build a bureaucracy.
We have a government where
almost 50% of the people get a government paycheck. That is horrible. That is
self-destruction. That restrains people because you have to tax everybody else
to pay the salaries of those 50% that are getting a government check. You have
half the people working to support the other half. That cannot work. That is
going to fall apart sooner or later.
Atsar is word means to restrain, to close up, to
retain, shut, withhold, refrain, stay or detain. It is a negative word. It is
never used positively. The King James translated it “shall reign”. It should be
“This one
shall restrain My people.” He is going to cause
problems, but he is the one I have chosen. God is indicating already that they
are going to learn a negative lesson here.
As Saul came up to Samuel, he does
not have a clue who he is talking to. Saul said, 1 Samuel 9:18, “Please tell me,
where is the seer’s house?” Samuel introduced himself. “I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place,
for you shall eat with me today…”
Remember, the young girls
had already told them that after the sacrifice there would be a group that
would eat separately, and that would be honored. That is this group. This was
typical. What we are going to see here is this meal that takes place is a meal
with Samuel, where he is going to give the best meat, the best food, to Saul.
Who are these other dignitaries
that are there? Let me suggest that they are the leaders of Israel, the elders
of Israel, even though they are not identified as such. Samuel is laying the
groundwork because he is about to anoint Saul to be the king.
In 1 Samuel 9:19–20, Samuel
says that he is going to go up. “You will eat with me today. Tomorrow I will let you
go and will tell you all that is in your heart. But as for your donkeys, do not
worry about them. They have been found.”
As they go up, they prepare
to eat. They prepare to have this particular fellowship. What we see here that
is really interesting.
As they come together to
dine, they represent something that happened typically in the ancient
world—that you would give the largest plate of food and the best cuts of meat
to the person who was the guest of honor. He would get the most food and the
highest quality food. This is indicated also in a number of passages. This food
is one that had a lot of fat in it. We talk about low=fat diet. This was not a
low-fat diet.
Look at some of the passages of
Scripture. I pointed out a few. I have never figured out the emphasis on the
fat. Jay Collins and I have had conversations about this. I have had
conversations with Randy Price and others. Why is it that they valued the fat?
I have not figured out why that is important, but they did.
God said in Exodus 29:22, “Also you shall
take the fat of the ram, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails,
the internal fat, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat on
them, the right thigh…” That goes to the priest.
Exodus 29:27, “… you shall
consecrate the breast (of the sacrifice) as a wave offering … and the thigh of
the heave offering … that is for Aaron… and his sons.” That is going to be the right thigh. I
think the thigh that is going to be given to Saul is going to be the left
thigh.
Leviticus 7:32, “Also the right
thigh you shall give to the priest.” It is this fatty part that is
considered to be the delicacy.
I do not have time to talk
about the time we were sitting at a dinner in Kazakhstan. It was a goat's head
on the platter. The oldest person was to get the honor of eating the eyeballs.
They offered that to me. I said, no, no, no, George Meisinger
is two decades older than me. I exaggerated. He is a decade and a half. He was
so gracious. He said to the hostess, well you like them so much I would hate to
take that away from you. You enjoy those eyeballs, and she did. Different
cultures value different things.
Samuel, Saul, and the group
ate, and we find as we come down to the last couple of verses, 1 Samuel 9:25, “When they had
come down from the high place into the city, Samuel spoke with Saul
on the top of the house.” If the weather were good, especially in the
spring or summer when it is warm, they would conduct their business on the roof
outside.
Where do we see this in
Scripture? We see this in John 3. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and they
are sitting on the roof. It is where it is cool. It is too hot and stuffy
inside the house where they meet. Here too they are meeting on top of the
house.
The next day, in 1 Samuel
9:26, “They
arose early; and it was about the dawning of the day that Samuel called to Saul
on the top of the house …” He probably slept out there because it was
cooler… “on the top of the
house, saying, ‘Get up, that I may send you on your way.’ And Saul arose, and
both of them went outside, he and Samuel.”
We will stop there. In 1
Samuel 9:27 we start getting into the actual anointing of Saul. We will begin
there when I return from Kiev in three weeks.
Closing Prayer
“Father, thank You for this
opportunity to study these things this evening. Above all, when we talk about
sacrifice, we know that all sacrifices point to the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus
Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, and that we have eternal salvation
simply by trusting in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Now Father, we ask that You
help us to recognize from our study that often what we think we need, often
what we ask for may not be the best. Often we operate on pride and arrogance,
looking at things on the outside and not on the heart as You
do. We pray that You would give us wisdom and discernment, and especially in
this upcoming election cycle, that we might pick men and women to serve and
lead this country who are truly humble, who are truly dependent upon You, and
truly understand the issues of good, integrity, leadership, and how to follow
the Constitution of this country along with Your Word. We pray this in Christ’s
name. Amen.”